On Sept. 29, new organizations published the article "Travel industry sticking with trips to Cuba from U.S." In the article Greg Geronemus, CEO of SmarTours says, "We continue to believe that Cuba is a safe destination for our travelers, and we will be running our tours until our assessment changes."

The Cuba travel industry insists travel to Cuba is safe and dismisses the travel warning issued on Sept. 29 by the State Department that described how "numerous U.S. Embassy Havana employees have been targeted in specific attacks. These employees have suffered significant injuries as a consequence of these attacks."

Press accounts report "mild traumatic brain injuries, hearing loss, severe headaches, cognitive disruption, and brain swelling." Over the past 10 months they have not been able to identify the source of the attacks but did report that the attacks occurred both at "U.S. diplomatic residences and hotels frequented by U.S. citizens." At least 21 Americans have been harmed.

The travel industry's claim that "Cuba is a safe destination" should be placed in context. Earlier in September when Hurricane Irma, a deadly category five storm with 180 mile per hour winds was bearing down on Cuba and a hurricane watch issued, tourists were still being flown into the island by British and Canadian travel agencies.

The British travel agency "Thomas Cook has defended itself saying the company followed the Cuban government's emergency instructions to the letter," BBC News reported. Cayo Coco suffered the full impact of Hurricane Irma and was destroyed by the storm. They were flying tourists into Cuba to Cayo Coco a day prior to the storm's arrival, as reported by The Independent (United Kingdom).

CBC News (Toronto) reported that Canadian tour operator Sunwing had elderly tourists flying into Cuba 24 hours before the deadly Category 5 storm, Hurricane Irma, smashed into Cuba , forcing them to flee for their lives. Hundreds of foreign tourists didn't make it and were left stranded to face a hurricane that according to official Cuban government figures claimed ten lives and injured many more, but these travel agencies were just following regime orders.

Now this same travel industry tells tourists Cuba is safe and to ignore "targeted attacks" that took place at hotels frequented by tourists that can cause serious harm. This is an outrage.